Just So You Know
by Loren Westman
Summary: Jake comes back from Arizona. He had left Sam in darton a year before because he wanted her to be happy with her boyfriend. and even though he really loved her he was willing to give her up. ONESHOT


Just So You Know (Oneshot)

First fanfic ever. Hope you guys like it. Terri Farley owns all of the characters with the exception of Levi Hanson, he is all mine. Read and Review please. and the song is "Just So You Know" by Jesse McCartney. not mine.

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When Samantha Forster walked into the ranch house with her boyfriend Levi Hanson the last person in the world that she expected to see was Jake Ely, her boyfriends best friend. Jake had moved away the year before to train horses professionally at a ranch in Williams, Arizona; but now, somehow, magically and painfully he was here again.

Sam and Jake had been best friends until the day he had slipped a note under the Forster house front door with Sam's name on the front of the envelope in Jake's unmistakable scrawl. That was the day that Sam Forster was forced to grow up and realize that people do inexplicable things in the name of maturity and responsibility. She didn't hate him for it, but she also didn't understand what would make him ditch his last year of high school and take off for a ranch a few hundred miles away, especially without even telling her in person that he was leaving.

Levi just stood there looking at Jake as the tall fit boy stood from his seat at the table; then in one swift stride he walked over to Jake and gave him a hug. Then stepping back Levi said, "Wow Jake, it's great to have you back. How's the horse training going?"

Jake gave a nod of acknowledgement and then looked past Levi at the stunned Sam, "You okay Brat? Aren't you even going to say anything?" he chided.

"Don't ever call me Brat again Jake Ely!" Sam snapped at Jake, turning and rushing up the stairs to the solace of her room.

Picking up her cell phone Sam hit Jen's speed dial and listened as the phone rang and rang, just as she was getting ready to hang up Jen answered, "Sam, what's up girl?"

"J-Ja-Jake, he's back and he's downstairs in my kitchen, he finally came back Jen." Sam stammered.

"Oh wow! I'd come over but I'm in the car on my way to Reno for the weekend. Can I call you back, I am getting another call."

"Yeah that's fine, talk to you later." Sam hung up and sat down on the edge of her bed.

_*Knock Knock*_

"Come in," Sam said automatically.

Jake entered her room slowly and tentatively. "Sam I'm sorry, I…well I don't know, I'm just really sorry." he offered.

Turning to face him Sam asked, "Jake why did you leave, especially without even telling me to my face that you were leaving, you were my best friend and you just took off without much explanation to anyone?"

Jake walked towards her bed and sat down on it next to her. "Sam I am only going to tell you this because I owe you an explanation, I left because you started dating Levi. I love you and it tore me up to see you dating my best friend. I didn't want to hurt you, and I wanted what was right for you; so I left."

_I shouldn't love you, but I want to__  
__I just can't turn away__  
__I shouldn't see you,__  
__but I can't move__  
__I can't look away_

Sam looked at Jake and could see his eyes welling up, and knowing that Jake never cried unless something was killing him she said to him, "Jake why now? Why did you come back now? Why didn't you just tell me in the first place? I really like Levi; we have a lot of fun together. Please don't think that just because you were man enough to come back and tell me that I'm going to dump him like a hot rock."

_And I dont know__  
__How to be fine when I'm not__  
__'Cause I don't know__  
__How to make a feeling stop_

"I know Sam. I had to come back and make it right with everyone here that I left without telling, and you were the first person on the list, my parents know I'm back but I haven't even told them yet why I left."

_Just so you know__  
__This feeling's takin' control__  
__Of me and I can't help it__  
__I won't sit around__  
__I can't let him win now_

Jake got up off the bed, picked his Stetson up off Sam's dresser and taking one last look at Sam he left and closed the door behind him. Taking he stairs two at a time he entered the kitchen, told Gram and Levi goodbye and left the house. As he stepped off the porch he looked up at Sam's open window and wished more than anything else that he could take back his leaving. That he had never left. He strode to the hitching rail and untied Witch's lead rope, coiled it and tied it to his saddle using his piggin' strings **(A/N: piggin'strings are the little leather strings on your saddle that you use to tie stuff to the saddle.) **Then mounting his black Quarter Horse mare he wheeled and galloped out of the yard and towards the range.

_  
__Thought you should know__  
__I've tried my best to let go__  
__Of you but I don't want to__  
__I just got to say it all before I go__  
__Just so you know_

Sam sat on her bed in stunned silence, _**Jake had left because he loved her, not just loved her but loved her enough to give her up so that she had a chance at happiness, **_she mused. She pondered how much she loved Levi, and at the exact moment that she heard Witch's hoof beats as she galloped out of the yard she realized how much she really loved Jake. That was why she had been so hurt when he had left. Standing up suddenly she rushed to her dresser and grabbed her baseball cap, pulled it on and grabbed her worn leather riding gloves. Rushing from her room and down the stairs she had no idea what she would say to Levi but she did know one thing she had to catch Jake. _**  
**__  
__It's getting' hard to__  
__Be around you__  
__There's so much I can't say__  
__Do you want me to hide the feelings__  
__And look the other away_

Jake galloped Witch over the bridge, crossed the highway and turned the mare towards the lake in the middle of War Drum Flats. He had spent at least 4 hours there sitting on a rock thinking, the night that he had left Darton for Arizona.

_And I don't know__  
__How to be fine when I'm not__  
__'Cause I don't know__  
__How to make a feeling stop_

As she dashed through the kitchen Sam barely had time to notice the stunned look on Levi's face as she ran out the door. She knew that she was taking the coward's way out with Levi but she didn't have time to explain things to him right now. She sprinted to the barn, grabbed Ace's bridle from a hook in the tack room and went to Ace's stall and bridled him. Then leading him out she jumped on bareback and raced him out of the barn and headed towards the bridge._  
_  
_Just so you know__  
__This feeling's takin' control__  
__Of me and I can't help it__  
__I wont sit around__  
__I can't let him win now__  
__Thought you should know_

When Jake arrived at the lake he ground tied Witch and picking up a few small rocks he started throwing them at the water, not caring if they skipped or not, just wanting to throw something. He was lost in his own thoughts and didn't pay any attention to the distant hoof beats; something that he would normally hear and want to investigate.

_  
__I've tried my best to let go__  
__Of you but I don't want to__  
__I just gotta say it all before I go__  
__Just so you know_

Sam reined Ace towards War Drum Flats, if there were one place in the world that Jake would go to find some peace and quiet it would be Witch Rock Lake (A/N: this lake is my invention, not found in any Terri Farley book to my knowledge.). He had always been entranced by the place since he was a little boy. As she neared the lake she could see the dark form of Witch.

_This emptiness is killin' me__  
__And I'm wonderin' why__  
__I've waited so long__  
__Lookin' back I realize__  
__it was always there,__  
__just never spoken__  
__I'm waitin' here__  
__Been waitin' here_

Once she got to the lake Sam stopped Ace and slipping from his back she ground tied him and walked towards Jake, not sure what she was going to say to him but knowing that she needed to say something to him.

_Oooh__  
_

Jake turned at the sound of Ace whinnying at Witch, "Sam?" he thought, "Could it really be her, how did she know that he would be here."

Sam walked around the rocks that stood between the horses and Jake, Jake was standing at the edge of the water, turned to face her, he had a handful of rocks and his Stetson was sitting on the sound a few feet from the lapping water.

"Jake I-I." Sam faltered, then gaining courage she plunged on, "Jake I missed you, and I guess I've always loved you. I don't want you to leave ever again. Please." she pleaded. "If you ever leave again I don't know what I would do."

Jake dropped the rock he was holding and walked towards her, "Sam I didn't want to hurt you, that's why I left, I thought that if I was gone then you and Levi could be happy together, but I knew that if I stayed I would have eventually done something that I would have regretted. You should go back to Levi, he loves you, I know that, and you must love him too, you two have been going out for the year I've been gone."

_  
__Just so you know__  
__This feeling's takin' control__  
__Of me and I can't help it__  
__I wont sit around__  
__I can't let him win now__  
__Thought you should know__  
__I've tried my best to let go__  
__Of you but I don't want to_

Sam closed the gap between herself and Jake and laid a finger across his lips. Then she pulled him closer and gave him a huge hug. "Jake I realize that I don't love Levi. We kept going out because I guess we felt safe together. I don't actually know how he feels about me but I know that I don't love him like I should if I'm going out with him. He was really hurt when you left, he thought that he had done something wrong or stupid to make you leave."

_  
__I just gotta say it all before I go__  
__Just so you know__  
__Whoa__  
__Just so you know__  
__Whoa_

Jake turned back to face the water and took a few steps away from Sam, he couldn't think. Sam really did care, the thought raced through his mind. How could it be, he had turned his back on the only girl he had ever loved and it turned out that she really did like him.

Sam watched Jake stand there for what must have been nearly 20 minutes finally when he turned around a faced her she could tell that there were tears in his eyes, the second time today and probably only the 10th time in his entire life.

Jake turned back towards Sam and a few quick paces he was right in front of her, then lifting her face he kissed her gently on the lips, then a bit more passionately. Finally, he knew that he would stay here. He wouldn't leave again as he had planned.

_  
__Thought you should know__  
__I've tried my best to let go__  
__Of you but I don't want to__  
__I just gotta say it all before I go__  
__Just so you know__  
__Just so you know_

Sam kissed him back, the two stood there kissing for what seemed like an eternity, and as the sun finally slipped behind the distant mountains the two broke apart and walked back to their horses hand in hand. Sam knew that she would have to talk to Levi but somehow knowing that Jake was here to help her do it, it didn't seem as daunting.

The End


End file.
